A husband and wife team. David is originally from London but moved to South Africa when he was 9 where he met and married Brigitte over 20 years ago. We have now been living in England for the past 7 years. We both have a love of good food, dining out and all things to do with life style. We will be reviewing restaurants, products and giving foodie and life style tips. All our reviews are unbiased.

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Friday, 15 May 2015

Thai Express, intu Lakeside

A small part of Thailand in the heart of Lakeside Shopping
Centre

I had the pleasure of being invited to
partake in intu Lakesides Big Treat event. It is the
first time that I have actually had a good look at the variety of food outlets
in their food court on the third floor.
My goodness you are really spoilt for choice. I had to pull David away from the Pie and
Mash outlet, being the Eastender that he is.
It might be his heritage to eat jellied eels, there is no way I could
stomach the thought of it. Thai Express was
on my radar, at least this is one cuisine that we both agree on. Thai food is probably up there as one of
favourites.

I have never eaten Thai food prepared
like this before. Thai Express has a new
take on traditional Thai Cuisine. And
according to their website; “The global leading brand for fast casual Thai
dining.”

The first thing that I always look for at any
place I eat, is the hygiene rating; they have a five. The manager served us and was extremely
helpful, as this way of eating was all new to us. We had no idea where to even start, so we asked
her to suggest a variety of items for us to try. The food is prepared in front of you and you
can have you can have it as spicy as you like. Their food
is tailored to your taste and prepared fresh when you order. They provide variety,
quality and authenticity in a very modern looking outlet.

Ok now about the food, that is the
whole reason why we went. One downside
was that the food hall was packed and at first it looked like we would not find
a table, Danielle made a mad dash as someone vacated their table, did not
realise she could move that fast. We are
not normally ones for large crowds, but once we started to eat, it was if no
one else was near us. We started off
with one of the best soups we have ever eaten, family consensus on that. In fact we all agreed that it was the best
part of the whole meal. Tom Yum Mini Tofu Soup @ £4.30. There is no way that we would have said
before that we liked tofu, in this soup it was delightful. It consists of chicken broth spicy sweet and
sour lemongrass broth with rice noodles, bean sprouts, onion, carrot, green
onion, coriander and tomato and tofu.

We then moved onto trying the other three main
dishes, it was a case of taste pass the plate on. Until we had all had a taste and finally
settled down to finish the one we each liked. Pad Thai Chicken @ £6.50, Danielle’s favourite. Thin rice noodles stir-fried with sweet and
sour sauce, eggs, bean sprouts, green onion, tofu and salted radish. Must say it did not look as good as it tasted, it was very moreish.

Stir Fry Peanut Chicken @ £6.50, my favourite. Fresh crispy vegetable with a choice of
various flavours served on steamed rice. Each flavour have different vegetables. We had the peanut flavour. This was originally David’s choice but I
really love peanuts and he funnily liked the Green Curry, even though he is not
a big fan of coconut milk.

The third main was Green Curry Chicken @ £6.50.
A silky, creamy and spicy dish made with coconut milk, served on steamed
rice, pepper, onion, eggplant and Thai basil.
Yummy is all I can say.

We also had a very refreshing Mango Salad @ £3.20. Mango, iceberg lettuce, coriander, shallot,
red pepper and mint, served with sweet and sour fish sauce. Along with a
few prawn crackers. The whole meal with
three 500ml Pepsi’s came to £32.97. For what we had to eat I reckon reasonable
value for money. They have another two
outlets, one in London and one in Guildford.
So if you ever find one on your travels we recommend you stop and have
a bite to eat.